Imagery and Feeling in Poetry

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Imagery and Feeling in Poetry Many creative authors, especially in poetry, express emotion in their works through the use of imagery. This literary device is defined as the author “use[ing] figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses” (“Imagery”). This technique of revealing the authors intended sentiments through imagery is further aided by using certain figures of speech which will help touch the audiences “bodily senses” (“Imagery”). In “Fog” written by Carl Sandburg and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” written by William Wordsworth, both authors practice this writing method when describing the scenery and feeling or emotion in these poems. “Fog” was written using creative imagery when describing how the fog sits over the portrayed scene of city and harbor. Carl Sandburg describes the fog as coming in on “little cat feet” (2) which has been analyzed by several students from Collins University as painting the image of a cat sneaking into the city without noise and without caution, with a craftiness that only a cat can accomplish (“Overview”). In the next few lines of the poem, the students’ analysis explains that the fog is comparable to a cat because as the fog “sits looking/ over harbor and city”. (3-4) They believe that this is relative to how cats are always looking out over their surroundings from a raised position, acting as the “master of the universe”, refusing training, exuding a large sense of mystery, and they are not “succumbing to others expectations” (“Overview”). These university pupils also contest that the fog is like a cat because when a cat sits on “silent haunches” (5) it rests in a way that it can run off at any time if need be and they never stop and rest in one area for very long (“Overview”). The imagery used by Carl Sandburg in “The Fog” creates a picture in my

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